Sculpted Shadows: The Tear
by jacejosujura
Summary: Jace and Liliana have earned the right to a quiet life and a normal family, but their lives are anything but. A friend from the past comes calling, threatening to tear their new family asunder before it really begins.


**Here is part two of the Sculpted Shadows Series, The Tear. We are looking forward to carrying on the story! A storm is rolling in, and here we go! **

**J3 and LTK **

**(Jace Beleren)**

"What part of any business you have with her you have with me don't you understand, dolt?" I spit at the beast mage, shadow mage, I don't know what he is. All I know is that my wife is pregnant with our child and I will not let anything happen to them.

"This is family business, you three inch fool," he fires back at me, malice in his eyes.

"You're damn right it is, you bastard. That's my family. _ My wife. My pregnant wife. We've already lost one and I'll be damned if anything happens to this one. _I don't give a damn who you say you are. Get. Away. From. My. Wife."

"She was my sister long before she married you, and had I been here, she wouldn't have." He snarls at me.

"Looks like you're a little late to the party, then, friend? You don't know anything about her, and how do I know you are who you say you are? You won't get near her."

"Please stop," I hear Liliana say, but it doesn't register with me. The only thing I am concerned about is keeping my wife and my child safe. I turn to look at her and she looks like she is about to faint, and in this moment, that's the only thing that matters.

"Sit down, love. Please don't get stressed out. You can't be more than six weeks, and you don't need to be stressing over anything. I'm going to call Gideon and get him to walk you home while I deal with him."

"You won't take her anywhere, you pathetic, scrawny excuse for a man."

"He is my husband!"

"You never did know how to pick them, Liliana."

"You don't know anything about my marriage, cretin." The blue mana pounds through my veins.

"How'd you trick her into that one? Because my sister wouldn't have gotten married."

"She fell in love with me. No tricks."

"STOP! STOP! STOP IT!" Liliana shrieks, very obviously distressed.

"I have proven myself on the grounds of the multiverse, against many foes much greater than any blue tricks. I don't have to prove myself to some scrawny little counter mage with illusions. I have spent the last one hundred and fifty years scanning the multiverse, looking for you, Liliana Calliope! Do you see this?"

He rips his tunic off of his shoulder and all I see are crudely written runes, nowhere near as beautiful as Liliana's. However, she gasps. It's obvious she knows what it means and it is significant.

"What, love?" I address my wife.

"Those are my initials."

"That doesn't prove anything? What if it's a trick sent by Bolas, or the Dimir, or any of the people that hold grudges against you, they know how much you loved Josu. Everyone who knows you knows how much you loved your brother! Liliana, I do not care who he says he is. Please think with you brain and not your heart. _Liliana Vess inspires terror. _You're a mother now- protect our child. You can't let anyone into our world, Liliana, no matter how much you loved them in the past. We have to protect our baby!"

"If you do not cease talking, it will be you whom she _loved _and she will be with her real family, not one that she was tricked into."

"I wasn't tricked into anything, I love him! He is my _husband._"

"Hush. You never knew what was best for you anyways."

Blue mana starts to pour from my eyes. No one is going to speak to her that way. I pull Titan from the aether, and he wraps himself around Liliana, shielding her from danger. Calliope, my mindseeker, emerges next.

"Jace. There's no need for her to be out here! Please don't harm his mind!"

"My wife is a grown woman who has proven herself time and time again, against demons and beastmages, pyromancers and vampires, cathars and artificers. You will not speak to her like she is some insolent child. She is strong, independent, sassy, and she needs no one to make decisions for her. Take one more step in the direction of the mother of my child and I will wipe your very existence off the face of the multiverse, I will scatter your bits along the folds of the blind eternities and your being will rue the day you decided to step one more inch toward Liliana Beleren." I emphasize our last name. My name. Hers. The name our child will have.

"Her name is _Liliana Vess." _He stares daggers into me, the same look I have seen Liliana give Emmara, or Tezzeret. It's a special look she reserves for those that she loathes.

"No, it isn't. He is my husband and I took his name. Jace and I are two halves of a whole, and if you wish to prove who you say you are, you will listen to him, because he is the end-all, tell-all for this plane. Quite literally, his word is law."

He interrupts her monologue, spitting the words in her direction. "That means _nothing _to me, _he _means nothing to me."

"Well, he means everything to me."

"You're more far gone than I ever thought you would be, Liliana. He's poisoned your mind, you have fallen victim to his words. He's no family of yours."

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." Her voice is low but deadly.

"I never thought, in a million years, that you would react to me this way." He says, biting.

"You do not know how badly I wish to believe you. But after everything that we have been put through in the past year, it has taught me that, I can't believe anyone but the man standing beside me. Jace, " she spins a shade out of thin air. "They're on their way to your chambers."

Of course she's sent for Gideon, and Chandra, and Ral, Teysa too. She knows that we are not in anything alone. She is doing her part to protect our child. I think she is scared to channel magic, lest she lose our baby, like she did in the maze.

"We can meet in my office, in the Chamber of the Guildpact. But send messages to Laurel and Claire. I want them out of there, out of danger, free from harm. I won't endanger my staff."

"Why are you concerned for two women who are not your family, not your blood, no covenant of yours?" The man who claims to be my brother in law says, in a disgusted tone.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand. It took you nearly two centuries to find her. If you had actually cared you would have found her before I ever knew her, before she made a grave mistake. "

"Jace Rahl! Don't speak to him like that."

"Liliana! We don't even know who he is."

"I have kept my mouth shut for years about _her_, Jace, the least you can do for me is see if he's telling the truth."

"That's.. Okay, love. You're right."

"You should not have to barter with the man, _Lilia_._"_

The color drains from Liliana's face, she turns to face him. She takes a steadying breath and reaches for me, so I wrap an arm around her waist to brace her.

"How did you know that's what my brother called me from the time we were children?"

"Because I AM WHO I SAY I AM, Liliana! I do not appreciate that this man has such a grip on you that he can convince you, that your brother, the person who loved you first is not who he says he is! _I love him, _you say. _He's my husband, _you say. You sound like mother." Josu nearly spits at her.

Anger clenches at my very being. He's implying that she is weak and unable to tell me _no, _or that I'm emotionally manipulating her. That she would suffer by my hand like her mother did. I love her and our child more than my own life, I have proved that more than once.


End file.
